Ironically, I've been on a Soundgarden trip lately - listening to their stuff quite a bit over the last few weeks.

Here's something I posted on a music board I frequent:

I was not aware of Soundgarden until 1990. I saw them on Long Island on their tour with VoiVod and Faith No More. I was there for VoiVod…had never heard Soundgarden or FNM before. FNM was excellent that night – definitely converted me into a fan. Soundgarden too – but much moreso.

It may sound cliché, but Soundgarden’s performance was life-changing. I'd never seen anything like it before - or since. Before they even took the stage, people in the audience were bowing down and literally worshiping them – leaving me very intrigued in a “what the fuck???” kinda way. And then they started playing – it was a wall of noise – heavy, dark, doomy, dirty, and yeah, HEAVY. Cornell looked like he was possessed, and sounded like a mix of Ozzy and Plant on crack. In between songs he was slamming the mic stand into the ceiling, screaming things like “We’re gonna tear this fuckin’ place down!” as ceiling plaster fell all around him. As an impressionable 18 year old “metal or nothing” freak, I was blown away and instantly hooked. To this day, almost 30 years later, I’ve never seen a more powerful performance.

I bought the Louder Than Love CD that night, and became a huge fan of Soundgarden, and eventually, related Sub Pop bands like Nirvana, Mudhoney and Tad – and then onto the AmRep bands and the rest of that whole punk/noise/whatever scene (I refuse to use the term “grunge”.) Soundgarden was the gateway for me, moving me beyond my “thrash metal or die” mentality and opening up a new world of music for me.

Chris Cornell was a phenomenal singer and frontman, one of the best of his era. He will be missed. And even though Cornell and Soundgarden kinda sucked (for the most part) after Badmotorfinger…they were giants in their prime.